Sep 6, 2002 3 min read

Dear Editor: On July 20, 2001, we sold our former home and purchased a new one on the same day. We were told in three to four weeks that we would receive the deed to the new home, which was true.

We assumed, as would anyone, that the attorney took care of everything and any problem arising would be called to our attention.

Thirteen months later, on Aug. 22, 2002, a wooden stake with a late (not paid) notice for the school taxes for the year 2001 was placed in my front yard in the name of the previous owner.

I was dumfounded, upset and mystified as to what this was about. I called the Tax Claim Bureau and was told we owed the tax plus a $200 penalty. Why is this in the previous owners’ name and why did we not get a bill, a phone call, some notification, I asked. The answer was some mumbo jumbo that somebody must have screwed up somewhere.

I said I would be right up with a check minus the $200 penalty. I was told they couldn’t accept payment without the penalty and that only the school district can excuse the penalty. I called every politician I know, along with the school district tax office, the attorney, the realtor, and the people that bought my original home (they had no problem).

Everyone sympathized and claimed they would not pay the penalty. The realtor said he would not pay it, and that a party who bought a home in the same time period we did had a similar problem, but it was the Uniontown School District and the school board excused the penalty.

I received a letter from the school district on Aug. 27 saying that the school district solicitor Gary Frankhouser can’t excuse the $200 penalty because this happens all the time. Maybe the tax bill went to the previous owner. The tax collector claimed he never got a sticker changing the name and address. All unpaid taxes are turned into the Tax Claim Bureau.

Everyone had a different answer as to why we were unaware of a past due tax (still, mind you, in the previous owners’ name 13 months later).

Maybe the post office, maybe the bank, maybe it got lost.

I went up to the Tax Claim Office and paid the tax and the penalty on Aug. 28. I have never been late or missed paying a bill my whole life.

My credit is excellent. But somebody somewhere along the line made an error and they all keep passing it off as “They probably did this, they probably did that.” I still don’t know who “they” are, but they made me feel like a deadbeat who was trying to wiggle out of a past due bill by complaining and explaining truthfully what happened.

This move was my first in 35 years. Changing addresses for driver license, insurance, friends, relatives, voter registration, unpacking, etc. is a three to four-month job.

You get a bill in the mail; you pay it. If you don’t get one you just don’t notice, especially in a new location with all that’s going on.

I learned a lot about a lot of people in the last two weeks. I only hope they never need me for a favor.

Louis M. Dominick Jr.

Uniontown